Save Venice is seeking sponsors for the conservation of the Saint George Altar on the Ground Floor of the Scuola Dalmata dei Santi Giorgio e Trifone.

*Published sponsorship costs are subject to change due to conservation plan modifications and fluctuations in exchange rates.

Please contact kim@savevenice.org today for more information and the latest cost estimates.

Commissioned by the officials of the Scuola in 1658, the altar served as the religious and devotional heart of the ground floor hall, a space long known as the Cappella di San Giorgio. The chapel owed its name to the precious relic of Saint George donated to the confraternity by Paolo Vallaresso in 1502, an event that profoundly shaped the identity of the Scuola and inspired the celebrated narrative cycle later painted by Vittore Carpaccio.

The altar is framed by an architectural structure that combines classical restraint with Baroque exuberance. Two dark marble columns with Corinthian capitals support an entablature crowned by a broken pediment, one of the most distinctive features of the ensemble. Rather than meeting at the center, the curved sections open outward, directing the viewer’s gaze toward a richly carved cartouche framed by volutes and scrolling foliage. The dynamic contours of this crowning element contrast with the orderly geometry of the columns below, introducing the sense of movement, drama, and theatricality characteristic of 17th-century Baroque design.

At the center of the altar is a painting of the Madonna and Child attributed to Vittore Carpaccio. The altarpiece forms part of the larger decorative program that adorns the hall, whose narrative canvases are currently being restored by Save Venice.

Between the altarpiece and the altar table runs a gilded arcaded predella containing five reliquaries housed within individual niches. Together they form a miniature pantheon of saints associated with protection, military virtue, and the defense of the Christian faith. The most elaborate reliquary is dedicated to Saint George, whose relic transformed this room into the Chapel of San Giorgio and became one of the spiritual treasures of the confraternity. At the center stands the largest reliquary, containing relics of Saint Tryphon, co-patron of the Scuola Dalmata and patron saint of Kotor, a city from which many members of the confraternity originated.

The remaining reliquaries preserve relics of saints whose cults reflected the confraternity’s ideals and concerns. Two contain relics of lesser-known figures associated with the defense of the faith: Saint Constant, possibly the 7th-century bishop of Capri renowned for his opposition to heresy, and Saint Theonistus, a 4th-century bishop-martyr traditionally linked to the struggle against the Visigoths. Particularly significant is the reliquary of Saint Blaise. Venerated throughout Christendom as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and invoked as a powerful protector, Saint Blaise was also the patron saint of Dubrovnik, another city closely connected to the Dalmatian community in Venice. His presence on the altar therefore reflects not only the devotional life of the confraternity but also its enduring cultural and emotional ties to its homeland across the Adriatic.

Anchoring the ensemble both physically and symbolically, the stone altar brought together relics, images, and ritual practice into a single devotional focus, embodying the religious life of the confraternity and its enduring connection to the Dalmatian communities of the Adriatic.

The stone altar shows widespread surface deterioration, including erosion, losses along edges and corners, open joints, localized cracking, and deposits of dirt and dust. Areas of mechanical damage are particularly evident on the altar step and at the bases of the columns, where material loss have compromised the legibility of the stonework. Conservation treatment will include cleaning of the surfaces, consolidation of weakened areas, repair of cracks and open joints, and the selective reintegration of losses using compatible materials, with the aim of restoring the altar’s structural integrity and visual coherence while preserving its historic fabric.

Unidentified Sculptor (17th century)
Altar of Saint George
late 1650s, stone and marble
450 x 200 cm

Marinković, Ana. Saints’ Relics in Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni: An Anti-Ottoman Pantheon. In Capriotti, Giuseppe, Francesca Coltrinari and Jasenka Gudelj (eds.). Visualizing Past in a Foreign Country: Schiavoni/Illyrian Confraternities and Colleges in Early Modern Italy in comparative perspective (IL CAPITALE CULTURALE Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage Supplementi 07 / 2018), pp. 45-55. Link to the article

Perocco, Guido. Carpaccio nella Scuola di S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni. Venice: Ferdinando Ongania Editore, 1964, p. 187

Piovan, Valentina, Stefania Randazzo and Melissa Conn. “Carpaccio’s Original Painting Installation in the Scuola Dalmata: Where and Why.” Confraternitas, 32, 1 (2021): 6-25. Link to the Article

Vallery, Tullio. La Scuola Dalmata dei Santi Giorgio e Trifone. Note e appunti per una cronistoria. Venice: Scuola Dalmata dei SS. Giorgio e Trifone, 2011, pp. 93-98